Yeah. Yeah. I already know what you’re saying.

“Why are you talking about meta tags? They don’t affect a website’s search rankings. They aren’t really important at all.”

While they don’t have an impact on where your site ranks in the search engines, meta tags (particularly description) are still important. Remember, this is what searchers see when they’re looking for your products and services. This is your first introduction to a potential buyer, and it’s your chance to convince them to come visit your website.

So, how can you write a meta description that attracts your target audience and gets people to click?

• Use keywords, but don’t focus on that—Again, placing the keywords in your meta description isn’t important for SEO purposes. Your website will rank the same whether the terms are in the description or not. However, there still is an important reason to use keywords in your description when possible.

The keywords let the searcher know that you have what they’re looking for. For example, if they Googled “Red Trek mountain bikes” and you have “Red Trek mountain bikes” in your description, it tells the searcher they need to go to your website to find what they need.

Having said that, this doesn’t mean you should stuff your meta descriptions full of keywords. It’s all about using them naturally. If you force the keywords in there, the copy will be difficult to read, and searchers won’t click.

• Use strong words—With 10 organic search results and a few paid search results on the page, why should searchers click your website over all the others? They need motivation. You need to use strong, motivating words that get people excited enough to click on your website.

Some good words to use include “discover”, “get”, “receive”, “today”, “free”, etc.

• Be clear in your description—The main purpose of the meta description is to, well, describe what your page is about. You want to attract qualified traffic that won’t bounce at absurdly high rates.

To do this, your description needs to be as accurate as possible. Don’t use gimmicks to get people to come to your website. Don’t use jargon. Don’t try to be clever. Be clear and concise. And give people a good reason to come to your website.

Take a look at your meta descriptions. Do they give searchers a reason to click on your link?

A few years back, when I was an internet marketing noob, every time I saw one of these landing pages, I would shudder. I thought they looked like blatant spam, and I couldn’t believe visitors would actually do business on such a sketchy/ugly website.

But after time and time again seeing just how well some of these ugly landing pages convert, I had to realize that I was just wrong. The people designing and writing these landing pages know what they’re doing. Many of them are affiliate marketers whose entire living depends on getting the highest number of conversions possible, so you have to realize they’ve tried everything and have found these sales letter landing pages just flat out work. That’s all there is to it.

But why? Why do ugly landing pages convert so well?

1. They have no distractions—One thing you have to admit about the sales letter landing page is that it doesn’t include anything that distracts the visitor from the main message. There isn’t any navigation, and there aren’t any unnecessary graphics. As soon as someone lands on the page, there’s only one thing for them to look at, and that is the sales message.
2. They’re easy to scan—By now, you know that online readers tend to scan content rather than read it word for word. These ugly landing pages are set up perfectly to accommodate scanners. They include bolded/highlighted phrases, bullet points, subheads, and other elements that allow you to quickly scan the content without having to read everything.
3. They include frequent calls to action—Too many landing pages have a buried call to action. Web users spend 80% of their time above the fold, so most visitors don’t even notice a call to action at the end of the page. That’s why it’s important to feature the call to action prominently and to repeat it regularly so visitors always have a way to take action no matter where they are on your landing page.
4. The main message is repeated regularly—I hear a lot of copywriters complain about long, sales-y landing pages because they feel like they’re just repeating the same things over and over. And to an extent, that’s true. But it’s also smart. Your message might not stick in the consumer’s brain the first time they see it, but by driving the point home over and over, it can become clear and motivate them to take action.
5. The testimonials verify the claims—Whether you believe the testimonials or not is irrelevant. The truth is testimonials build credibility, and consumers feel like they can trust their peers. So, whenever they see testimonials that verify the claims being made on the page, they start to think “Maybe this isn’t too good to be true.”

What do you think of ugly landing pages? What are some other reasons they work so well?

Click Through Rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who view your ad that actually end up clicking it. In other words, if your ad gets 100 impressions (views) and 1 click, your CTR is 1%.

What can you do to get more clicks without sacrificing the quality of these clicks?

Here are 8 helpful tips for boosting your CTR.

1. Don’t use general keywords—The best way to get clicks is to be relevant to what the searcher is looking for. If you’re a window manufacturer and you use really broad keywords (e.g. “windows”), most of your impressions will come from people who aren’t looking to buy your product. Be specific (e.g. double-pane windows, energy efficient home windows, etc.) to attract searchers who are ready to buy.
2. Use specific keywords in your ad headlines—Once you’ve chosen your keywords, you need to use these phrases in your ad headlines. This reinforces that you have what the searcher is looking for, and it helps to highlight your ad, making it stand out from the crowd.
3. Always be testing—Every PPC campaign is different. The best way to figure out what gets you more quality clicks is to always be split testing. Try different tweaks to your ads to find the ad formula that gets clicked most often.
4. Focus on your differentiators—Your ad needs to highlight the things that make you different. If you offer the best price, say so in your ad. If you have free shipping, put that in your ad. Make every single word count!
5. Let customers know what’s in it for them—Never forget, your customers want to know how they’ll benefit by doing business with you. Going back to the windows example. Do your windows help lower electricity costs? Do they improve security? Boost the home’s value? Benefits should always be featured in your PPC ads.
6. Use strong, motivating words—Guaranteed. Proven. Free. New. Safe. Order now. These are just some of the powerful words and phrases you can use in your paid search ads to grab the searcher’s attention and to motivate them to click your link.
7. Try seasonal headlines—Seasonal headlines show relevance. They make customers feel like they’re getting a special deal. Even if your product isn’t seasonal, you can still market it this way. “Double-Pane Windows 4^th of July Sale. Free shipping on all orders.”
8. Ask a question—Questions are a powerful copywriting tool. For example, rather than saying “Lower your electricity bill”, you could ask “Want to lower your electricity bill?” Simply changing a statement into a question can be helpful for piquing the searcher’s interest.

What have you done to improve your CTR in AdWords? Share your best tips by leaving a comment.

Late last year, I wrote a post detailing the pages you should include on your website. The list covered the usual suspects: home, about us, products, FAQ, contact, testimonials, guarantee, and site map. Looking back on the list, I realized I left one important page off…a page that can help you drive more search engine traffic, enhance your credibility, and even earn you media coverage.

Which page am I talking about?

I’m talking about the news room. In this age of online news releases, the online news room plays an important role in media and customer relations. A strong news room let’s everyone know that your company is staying active and relevant, and it gives the media the information needed to create stories about you.

A good news room can also help you increase your website’s search rankings. By targeting specific keywords in your news releases and creating a strong internal linking structure, you can use your news to climb the search rankings while attracting quality traffic that includes buyers and media.

What needs to be in your news room?

A news room is more than just your latest press releases. It’s a comprehensive section that gives visitors all the information they want about your business. Here are some of the things you should have in your online news room.

• Press releases—It’s important to publish company news on a regular basis. This gives visitors the impression that your company is active, relevant, and moving forward. It also gives you an opportunity to target more keywords to further bolster your website’s search engine rankings. Just make sure you actually have news to share and that your press releases aren’t just advertisements.
• Company profile—Give a basic overview of your company’s history, mission statement, and outlook for the future. This is basically like an about us page, but it’s designed to give the media those little details they may need when covering your company.
• Staff bios—You don’t need bios on everyone at your company, just the key executives. You also don’t need to go into great detail in these bios. A paragraph for each key member should suffice. You can also include a headshot with each bio.
• Case studies—Case studies can offer specific details about how your products or services solve problems and benefit customers. They’re great tools for building credibility with buyers and for helping the media find unique story angles. Just make sure your case studies are straightforward and based on the facts.
• Prior media coverage—If your company has been featured on TV, a newspaper, magazine, blog, podcast, or anywhere else, try to find the source online and link to it. If you can’t find it, consider uploading it yourself as media coverage is another good tool for making your company seem more credible.

Do you have a news room on your website? What else is in it?

However, many companies don’t issue press releases on a consistent basis. Why? They say they don’t have any news to report.

I disagree. More times than not, there’s something going on at your company that’s worth talking about. There’s always a story to be told. You just have to find an interesting angle to capture the attention of your readers.

Here are 10 situations when your company should issue a press release.

1. Your company is launching a new product—8 out of every 10 products launched in the United States will fail. When you’re launching a new product, the odds are stacked against you. You need to do everything you can to spread the word and generate interest in your new product. Press release distribution can help.
2. You’re releasing the results of a new study—Case studies and other research make for great press release fodder. Just make sure your results are accurate and unbiased. In other words, don’t use them as a thinly-veiled advertisement.
3. Your business has ties to a current event—Is there a popular news story that you can tie your business to? If so, you need to act fast while it’s still relevant and send out a press release detailing your ties to this story.
4. You wish to comment on industry trends—Are things changing in your industry? Do you have predictions (based on facts…don’t make a fool of yourself) of where the industry is headed? Position yourself as an industry expert by commenting on the latest trends.
5. You’ve received an award or certification—Awards and certifications enhance your credibility, and they are good topics for press releases. Share your successes with the world!
6. Your company is growing—Growth shows that your company is healthy and thriving. Whether you’re hiring more employees, adding new services, or moving into a new, bigger building, your growth makes for a great story.
7. You’re involved with a charitable cause—Consumers and reporters love to hear about brands aligning themselves with charities. It humanizes your company, and it’s always a good way to generate positive publicity.
8. You’re offering something free—Do you have a new eBook or whitepaper you’re offering for free? Maybe you’re offering a free trial of your services. Write a press release about these freebies to generate more interest in your company.
9. You have strange news to share—News of the weird is always a good way to get press coverage. Like when Burger King launched the world’s most expensive hamburger. It was a gimmick and strange, but it got a lot of media attention.
10. Your employees have an interesting story—Are your employees involved in any after-work charitable causes? Do they have inspirational stories and unique backgrounds? Your employees can prove to be interesting topics for news coverage.

What are some other good topics for press releases? Share your best ideas by leaving a comment.

As of this moment, there still isn’t a “iPhone App” available for Google AdWords, but the great news is that Google has made AdWords fully accessible on the iPhone by basically offering a “Mobile Friendly” version of AdWords.

I think it fits the bill perfectly, although, I do prefer apps over viewing mobile friendly web pages designed specifically for iPhone. With Google AdWords for mobile, you can view all your current and active campaigns, perform maintenance — such as increasing and decreasting bids, and even run and view custom alerts.

Long story short: You can do just about everything using Google AdWords for Mobile on your iPhone as you could accessing the main AdWords site from a computer. This is great for me, and if you’re nuts about your iPhone and have a few AdWords campaigns yourself, this will be great for you. I recommend checking it out. And all you have to do in order to do that is simply visit Google AdWords from your iPhone. Check it out, and let me know what you think.

P.S. I’m still plugging away at my keyword series. I am finding it to be a challenge communicating what I know in a way that I think will properly teach you in writing. Stay tuned!

Now, when you’re starting your press release marketing campaign, you might be tempted to push your press releases on free distribution websites. These free press release directories let you post your news at no cost to you, so it seems like a good deal, right? Wrong.

Free press release websites are almost always a waste of time. Here are 4 reasons to avoid using them.

1. Takes up too much time—I have a hard time considering free press release websites “free.” Why? Because it takes up so much of your time to find all the right directories, create accounts on each of them, and post press releases on one directory at a time. The process can take several hours. Ever heard the phrase “time is money”? I don’t know about you, but I could spend those hours on other marketing and PR tasks that would get much better results than putting my press release on some low-ranking free directories.
2. You share space with spammers—Because these websites are free, they tend to attract a lot of spammers. Just take a look at any of the popular free press release websites. If you click on a few of the press releases, you’ll see most of them are more like advertisements than news. Do you really want your press release sitting on a website with a bunch of spam? It seems kind of pointless if you ask me.
3. Journalists won’t see your press release—Isn’t the whole point of press release distribution to get your news picked up by the media? Yes, I know that press releases have become a good tool for SEO and link building, but that doesn’t mean you have to throw away the other benefits of a solid press release marketing strategy. The simple truth is if you only put your press releases on free websites, your story will never get picked up. Reporters don’t check these sites. You have to use a distribution service that gets your press release in the hands of targeted, influential reporters
4. You have to pay if you want anything decent—There’s always a catch, isn’t there? With free press release websites, the catch is usually that you have to fork over some money if you want a wide range of features. For example, you usually have to pay extra if you want your press release to run without ads all over the page. You may also have to pay if you want to embed links in the press release. My advice: Save your money for an actual press release distribution service that can get you results.

Do you use free press release distribution websites? Why or why not?

There are a lot of different programs available for researching keywords. You can find many of these programs for sale, stocked in the virtual shelves of ClickBank. While others can be found by searching Google and various blogs and websites. In the past, I have purchased and used a few of these different programs including Micro Niche Finder and Keyword Elite. These paid programs do work, and they do serve their purpose.

But, what about the people who don’t like to purchase software? Times are tough, a lot of people might not have money to invest into software. Believe me, I have been there myself. Sadly, too many times for my own taste. The great news is that there are ways to research keywords without buying software. Amusingly, the method I want to share with you is actually my preferred method, above and beyond using paid software.

I use –and if you’ve been reading my articles for awhile you already know– Google AdWords to research keywords. The program is intended for business owners, entrepreneurs, and individuals who want to instantly promote their products, services, and general advertisements to highly targeted audiences. As you may know, the program allows for people to bid on the keywords they want to rank for. Within that, there are tools that offer people ways to find keywords that have certain levels of popularity and competition.

Now for me, I am an online publisher who builds various blogs and websites for the purpose of targeting researched keywords for profit. I build helpful sites that provide information based on these topics and monetize the content with AdSense ads. My goal is to discover keywords that yield a high level of profit, while also having a manageable level of competition. In other words, there’s no point in building a site that triggers low paying ads, and it’s not worth my time building sites that fails to gain top ten rankings in the SERPS. And that’s where the Google AdWords program kicks in.

That said, I encourage you to stay tuned because in my next few articles, I am going to show you exactly how to effectively research keywords using two free tools available within the “Opportunities” section of Google AdWords (the Keyword Tool and Traffic Estimator) and two advanced search tools (related searches and wonder wheel) found on the left sidebar in the SERPS. Sorry to hype it up, but I think it’s best that we do this in bite site and managable pieces. So again, I invite you to stay tuned in. One of the best ways to do that is by subscribing to our blog.

Another way to get more from your old blog posts is to spin them into new articles for article marketing purposes. I still believe article marketing is a great way to increase your search engine presence, build more backlinks, and to position yourself as an expert in your industry. But, of course, you need content to be an effective article marketer. That’s where your old blog posts come in handy.

Here are 4 simple steps to take when spinning an old blog post into a new article.

1. Find an older post that performed well—Since your articles will be targeting the same basic audience as your blog, you should try to find older posts that were popular with your readers. Look for posts that attracted a lot of comments and got a decent amount of ReTweets. This ensures you’ll write an article that readers will be interested in.
2. Create an outline based on the post—The biggest mistake you can make when spinning an old blog post is to rewrite it a line at a time. Sure, this will help you avoid duplicate content, but it will likely turn into a second-rate version of the original post. Instead of taking this approach, I recommend making an outline based on the old post. Write down the main points of the old post, add any new points you can think of, and create an outline for a new article. Try switching up the format to make sure it’s completely different from the original (for example, turn a list post into a how to article).
3. Write according to the outline, not the old post—Once you’ve created an outline, stick to it. Just go ahead and close out the old blog post altogether so you don’t feel compelled to make your new version so similar to the old post. This way, your new article will have a life of its own, even though it’s based on an old piece of content.
4. Double check to ensure there’s no duplicate copy—If you’ve followed these steps precisely, you shouldn’t have any issues with duplicate content. However, it’s better to be safe than sorry, so feel free to double check your new content with Copyscape or another duplicate content tool.

Have you ever spun an old blog post into an article for marketing? How did you do it? Share your best tips by leaving a comment.

Thankfully, increasing your local presence is actually pretty easy. You just have to incorporate these search marketing tips and tricks, and you’ll soon be dominating the competition.

• Use location-based keywords—This is SEO 101 really, but I still see a lot of people mess it up. Let’s say you’re a roofing contractor that offers service to the Houston area. Rather than just using “roofing contractor” or “metal roofing contractor” as your keywords, you should be using keywords like “Houston roofing contractor” or “metal roofing contractor in Houston.” This increases your chances of ranking well for localized searches, and it eliminates irrelevant traffic from visitors from other cities you don’t service.
• Get listed in local directories—No matter where you’re located, you’ll find several online directories specific to your city and state. Some will be general business directories, and others will be devoted to your niche (e.g. Houston contractors directory). Getting listed in these directories improves your presence in the local market, and it helps you gain more quality backlinks to your website. If you can’t find local listings, check your competition’s backlinks. Chances are they’ll be listed in the directories you need.
• Get a Google Maps listing—Creating a Google Maps listing can help your website turn up above the fold in the search results, getting your more traffic and more conversions. Here’s a really good post you should read about ranking for your local keywords in Google Maps.
• Put your address on each page of your website—I’ve always been an advocate of putting your contact information on each page of your website because it: 1)Makes you appear more legitimate and trustworthy with your visitors and 2) Helps Google pinpoint your location for improved local search rankings.
• Guest post and comment on local blogs—Find blogs that target the local community, and become an active member on them. You can start by commenting regularly on each new blog post. Make sure your comments further the conversation, and never use comments as a means to promote your company. You can also ask to become a guest blogger on these local blogs, helping you reach out to the local community.
• Find local online networks to join—Between LinkedIn, Facebook, Yahoo, and message boards, you can find plenty of relevant local groups online to join. Posting regularly in these groups will increase your local visibility, and it’ll help you earn the trust of potential customers as you build relationships with them online.

Do you localize your search marketing efforts? Which tips would you add to this list?